[Bill:]
Yes, I do Wally, you know 1975 marks the fifty birthday of the oldest continuos radio show in the history of American radio. It was in November of 1925 that an old bearded fiddle player named Uncle Jimmy Tompson came into the studio of WSM. And he fiddled and as they say now he fiddled the taters off the vine. And there was an announcer there named George D. Hay. George D. Hay was called "The Solemn Old Judge" and just prior to Uncle Jimmy Tompson coming on the air there had been a program of classical music on the air "Grand Opera" and George D. Hay ways a little upset because the conductor at the Grand Opera said that there is no place in the Classics for realism.

And when he came on with Uncle Jimmy Tompson, he said, "Ladies and Gentlemen you have heard Grand Opera without realism, now you are going to hear something real 'The Grand Ole Opry'." And he gave it a name and it's fifty years old in 1975.

[Wally:]
Shall we wish it happy birthday?

[Bill:]
I think we should I think we should be the first people in the world. This is like being the first person to wish somebody a Merry Christmas, you know a way ahead of time, because the birthday is not actually until the month of November. But one of the reasons that we got this program tonight is so that all of usway over here thousands of miles away on the other side of the world, can send birthday greetings back to the Grand Ole Opry.
And is everybody in good voice? Can you'll sing in the key of G? Alright to the Grand Ole Opry here we go.